Collide
by TheBard16
Summary: When the people who you love most leave you, all that's left is memories.


A/N: Hi, this is my first Xena fic, and though it may seem strange, when I heard Howie Day's "Collide" my mind sorta snapped to this. puppy dog eyes please review.

Gabrielle leaned on the railing of the small vessel, unimaginably tired and hopeless. Tightly clutching the black urn, she turned to the cabin doors, thinking of the sleep that has been eluding her.

As the night passed, she fell into a fitful rest, ignorant of the familiar phantom sitting at her bedside.

"It'll be alright Gabrielle, you just have to remember…" the ghostly voice faded, along with the hand placed on the bard's scrunched forehead.

Gabrielle's dreams were not of the past weeks as they had been for nights, for this she was relieved, but puzzled as well. Had she gotten over Xena's death so easily? Could she have readily accepted the fact she would never see the face of her best friend? A montage of scenes ended her deliberation, most were memories she recognized, some she did not.

Gabrielle fights off her attackers, aiding her mother and sister's efforts, but all the while keeping one eye trained on the mysterious warrior woman that saved them.

_The dawn is breaking  
A light shining through  
You're barely waking  
And I'm tangled up in you  
Yeah  
_

Xena prays to the gods in the moonlight, hoping to save the soul of her friend. Gabrielle watches silently from the underbrush, a single tear sliding down her cheek to join her friend's own tears staing the ground.

_  
I'm open, you're closed  
Where I follow, you'll go  
I worry I won't see your face  
Light up again  
_

Xena and Gabrielle exchange pained looks as the nails are driven into their hands, the pure white snow falling on the dying heroes shoulders as they are hoisted into the sky.

_  
Even the best fall down sometimes  
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme  
Out of the doubt that fills my mind  
I somehow find  
You and I collide  
_

Xena sits and stares over the fire at her new traveling companion snuggled into the ground. The girl had saved her, in more ways than one. She gave her hope that the world would accept and not fear her new mission. She had tried war, only to realize peace was the greater task.

_  
I'm quiet you know  
You make a first impression  
I've found I'm scared to know I'm always on your mind  
_

Xena cradles a sobbing Gabrielle at the ruins of the temple of Dahak, hoping that the future dealt the pair a better path, much better than the destruction their lives had so far endured.

_  
Even the best fall down sometimes  
Even the stars refuse to shine  
Out of the back you fall in time  
I somehow find  
You and I collide  
_

Gabrielle has paid the price to save the soul of her friend from eminent destruction at her own hands. She heads to Chin, ahead of her wayward friend hell-bent on assassination.

_  
Don't stop here  
I lost my place  
I'm close behind  
_

She has battled samurai, endured a painful journey to the spring, all for nothing, as she sat next to the spirit of her friend watching their last sunset. In their last moments together, they remembered.

_  
Even the best fall down sometimes  
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme  
Out of the doubt that fills your mind  
You finally find  
You and I collide_

Gabrielle woke to the sound of the crewmen on deck, rigging lines and shouting orders. She yawned and turned over in her hammock, opening her eyes and string into familiar blue orbs. "Xena?"

However much Gabrielle thought the vision was just a remnant of her fading dreams, the figure reached out a hand and stroked a piece of hair off the bard's face. "Hey."

Gabrielle tightly squeezed her eyes shut, hoping for the painful vision to dissipate, knowing her friend was dead and never coming back. "Ya know, Dite says if scrunch your forehead like that you'll get lines." Gabrielle's eyes snap open and she vaults off the hammock, tackling her formerly-dead-best friend. "Xena! You're alive!"

The slightly abashed Warrior Princess hugs back fiercely and mutters, "Well I did promise never to die on you again."


End file.
